Columbia’s first, only female firefighter to retire

Columbia’s first, only female firefighter to retire

Captain Cindy Brunson grabs her turnout coat off the outside of the fire truck Friday at Columbia Fire Department Station 5 as she and her crew head off for a medical emergency. After 24 years with the depatment, Brunson is retiring at the end of this month. (Staff photo by Susan W. Thurman )

Columbia’s first, only female firefighter to retire

Captain Cindy Brunson with the Columbia Fire Department sits at the dining table in the living area of Fire Station 5 Friday in north Columbia. After 24 years with the CFD, Brunson will be retiring at the end of this month. (Staff photo by Susan W. Thurman)

Columbia’s first, only female firefighter to retire

Columbia Mayor Dean Dickey reads the words of a retirement plaque presented to Columbia Fire Department Capt. Cindy Brunson prior to the City Council meeting Thursday at City Hall. Brunson is retiring after 24 years with the CFD. (Staff photo by Tim Hodge)

As a captain with the Columbia Fire Department, Cindy Brunson has battled her share of blazes.

Now the department is trying to figure out how to replace someone who has blazed a fairly large trail herself.

Brunson will retire from the fire department on Jan. 29. Exactly 24 years to the day she made history as the first woman ever to be hired as a firefighter by the CFD.

“It’s a great job to have,” Brunson said. “I’ve had a lot of great teachers. A lot of great guys to work with.”

Considering herself as more of a “girly girl,” Brunson said she never much thought about joining a profession predominantly done by men. But in the late 1980s, she was looking for a job that didn’t require sitting down for much of the day.

“I think at the time, I needed a job and I saw it (the listing in the paper),” Brunson said. “I’m not the kind of sit-behind-the-desk person. It sounded interesting, and when I came here I didn’t know there weren’t any other girls. That never crossed my mind. God put me here for a reason. I didn’t plan on it, but I’m glad I did.”

When Brunson first joined the department, then Fire Chief Wayne Hickman told The Daily Herald that Brunson had ambition and “may get in there and want to go to captain.”

After five and a half years at the department, Brunson became one of the few women to rise to the rank of an officer.

“It was scary at first,” she said about the promotion to captain. “But I knew when my shift commander quit following to me to every call, I knew I was doing pretty good.”

Brunson is the first, and only, woman to be a firefighter in Columbia. Fire Chief Lee Bergeron said the department is always looking for more females to join. According to the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services, women make up 3.7 percent of firefighters in the United States.

“I think it’s just a profession that girls just don’t think about when they’re growing up,” Brunson said. “But maybe they should. There’s something here for every kind of girl. There’s something here for everybody to do. This isn’t a one-person thing. Everybody works together as a group.”

Bergeron said the department has difficulty recruiting women and other minorities to join. He said the CFD is competing with every fire department in the state for qualified candidates, and credits the city with raising the pay of firefighters as a potential key to bringing in qualified personnel.

Some women might be nervous about working with a bunch of men, but Brunson likes to joke that she wasn’t nervous at all. The guys were probably more nervous being around her, she said.

“I wasn’t uncomfortable being around them,” Brunson said. “They were all very nice. They’ve always been very nice. You live here like family. You learn each others problems. You talk about what each other doing in each others life.”

When Brunson — or “Lou” as she’s called in the firehouse — isn’t dousing fires or responding to accidents, she’s the department’s public education director. She coordinates with schools to set up assemblies for children and to have firefighters go to area businesses to give fire safety demonstrations.

Bergeron said the work Brunson does with the public is of tremendous value to the department, and something he wishes the department could really quantify.

“We know that with her keeping that program alive and viable she’s saved just as many lives as she would have with her crew going in with the hose and putting the fire out,” Bergeron said.

Brunson said she’s enjoyed her 24 years of service with the CFD. Every call was a new experience.

Her experiences have taught her to expect the unexpected, especially when checking an alarm for an elderly woman — who might be packing heat.

“We went to check a CO alarm,” Brunson said. “It’s 2 a.m. She’s outside with her arms crossed. She’s like, ‘Yeah, I live here by myself. My husband died a year ago and my friends told me I need to get one of these (pulling out a gun).’ I said, ‘Oh, let’s put that away. You don’t need that right now.’ Danger is everywhere. Keep your eyes open.”

Firefighter Tommy Henley serves under Brunson at Fire Station No. 5 in Spring Hill. He has worked for departments in Culleoka, Murfreesboro and Columbia, and since he started working as a firefighter in the early 1990s, Brunson is “as good as any captain” he’s worked for, Henley said.

“She’s had a great, historic career, regardless of her gender,” Bergeron said. “She’s going to be hard to replace. She’s blazed a trail.”

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